At halftime, it looked as if Saturday night's game would be similar to last week's loss to North Carolina.
Oregon State led 6-3, while ASU's blunders from a week ago were still evident.
Sun Devil sophomore quarterback Andrew Walter completed only 6 of 20 passes for 61 yards with two interceptions in the first half. ASU senior place-kicker Mike Barth also missed a 28-yard field goal.
But after the break, there was a resurgence in the Sun Devil offense. Walter completed 8 of 14 passes, while ASU generated 171 yards of total offense.
Walter's longest pass came with 10:08 remaining in the third quarter when he hit freshman running back Hakim Hill on a 46-yard touchdown strike. The Sun Devils converted 2 of 8 third-down attempts in the second half after tallying only 1 of 9 in the first half.
"Coming out of halftime, we knew we had to put stuff together because the first half was pretty ugly," Walter said.
On ASU's opening drive of the third quarter, Walter completed a 13-yard pass to junior wide receiver Shaun McDonald for a first down. A personal foul on the next play enabled the Sun Devils to move the ball to their own 46-yard line.
Walter threw an incompletion, before hitting freshman wide-out Derek Hagan for an 8-yard gain. He then connected with Hill for the score.
"I never thought I would see the day where there was only one touchdown scored between two Pac-10 teams," ASU head coach Dirk Koetter said.
After Hill fumbled on the goal line on ASU's next possession, the Beavers took over at their own 20. But sophomore free safety Jason Shivers stripped the ball from freshman tight end Dan Haines and senior linebacker Josh Amobi recovered at the Oregon State 37-yard line. Barth's 46-yard field goal gave the Sun Devils a four-point lead with 3:50 left.
"We made the adjustments we needed to make to put six points on the board," Hill said. "It's a 'W.' It's not the prettiest 'W,' but it's a 'W.'"
All of ASU's second-half scoring came in the third quarter. Although it wasn't much, the Sun Devil defense came through in the clutch.
"The defense continually bailed us out of bad situations and gave us a lot of chances to score points we didn't cash in on," Koetter said.
In the game's final minutes, Oregon State pushed its way closer to the goal line. A touchdown likely would have secured a victory for the Beavers, but ASU's defense stepped up in crunch time.
"We really didn't play all that great, and the defense kept us in whole the game," Walter said. "There's stuff we need to clean up. We can't have that in Pac-10 play."
Reach the reporter at katie.crane@asu.edu.
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